Sunday, April 28, 2013

Algonquin Indian Tales by Egerton Ryerson Young

Free US/UK Kindle
Classic

Algonquin
Indian Tales is a 1903 collection edited by Egerton Ryerson Young. (US Edition)(UK Edition)They were collected from residents of an
island in Ontario.

For thirty years or more we
have been gathering up these myths and legends. Sometimes a brief sentence or
two of one would be heard in some wigwam—just enough to excite curiosity—then
years would elapse ere the whole story could be secured.

This is one dedicated researcher!

The stories are not linked, but the illustrations
are.However, there are no
illustrations!That eccentric formatting
does not mean the book is not well edited.

These are not the usual creation myths.Here is the origin of disease:

Next the fishes and snakes
and other reptiles held their council, and they decided that as the human race
had now become such enemies to them they would trouble them with 'fearful
dreams' of snakes twining about them, and blowing their poisonous breath in
their faces, by which they would lose their appetites and die, while others of
them would seek opportunity to make the water they drank, or even the air they
breathed, unwholesome. The poisonous ones were also directed to use every
opportunity to kill with their deadly bites whenever possible.

The tree stepped up to side with the humans:

"First the great trees
held their councils, talked over the matter, and decided what they could do in
the way of furnishing remedies to cure these diseases that were doing so much
injury. The pine and the spruce and the balsam trees said, 'We will give of our
gums and balsams.' The slippery elm said it would give of its bark to make the
soothing healing drink.

Would the trees have stepped up if they could have seen
their future?

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About Me

I am a Hoosier who spent many years in Chicago and am now in San Antonio. My passion is reuniting lost dogs with their families. I am the Director of the Facebook page, Lost Dogs of Texas and a co-founder of "Lost Dog Awareness Day."

I am not new to reuniting families. After Katrina, I helped people in evacuee shelters in San Antonio to track their missing family members. After that work ended, I started a volunteer group that reunited over 1500 Katrina animals with their families by deciphering information online and tracing evacuees.

I am writing a book about two stolen Yorkies who were found after an amazing eighteeen month search. It is tentatively titled "Finding Baxter and Cooper: A Woman, a Private Investigator and their Successful Search for Two Stolen Dogs."